WITN: Collaborative research in Location Dependent Data Management

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This research project is a collaborative effort of Margaret Dunham, Southern Methodist University (IIS-9979458) and Vijay Kumar, University of Missouri at Kansas City (IIS-9979453) and is supported under the Wireless Information Technology and Networks (WITN) initiative, NSF 99-68. The goal of this research is to develop schemes for processing data that are strongly related to geographical locations, on a mobile computing platform. Unlike conventional data processing systems, in a wireless mobile computing environment the value of data may depend on location, and processing of a transaction at one site may give different results than that at another. This situation identifies a new type of data, which we refer to as Location Dependent Data (LDD). Thus, LDD is a class of data whose value is determined by (a) the geographical location of data storage and (b) the geographical location of the Mobile Unit (MU) where the query originated. For example, when a query from a MU wants to find out information about local hotels, it will get a different answer in Dallas than in Kansas City. It would even be possible for a traveler driving from Dallas to Kansas City to ask the same question en route but specifically request the response using Kansas City data rather than data based on the location from which he requests the query. Although the query may be stated in exactly the same way, it is interpreted in a location-dependent context. The objective of this research is to further explore the concept of LDD, its impact on transaction processing, and develop efficient schemes for its management. As a result of this research, methods will be produced which facilitate the storage of location dependent data at Mobile Units and techniques to efficiently process transactions which access this type of data. The creation of a testbed to is a major objective of the project. It will be used to implement and compare the various strategies proposed during the research.